TweakTown News Posts - Page 1

The Obama Administration desperately seeks changes to encryption, hoping technology companies will install hidden backdoors just for them. Former NSA analyst Edward Snowden is defending the argument supported by companies such as Google and Apple, as politicians in Washington demand better access.

"The central problem with insecurity mandates has never been addressed by its proponents: if one government can demand access to private communications, all governments can," Snowden said in an email published by The Intercept. "No matter how good the reason, if the US sets the precedent that Apple has to compromise the security of a customer in response to a piece of government paper, what can they do when the government is China and the customer is the Dalai Lama?"

"Technologists and companies working to protect ordinary citizens should be applauded, not sued or prosecuted," Snowden also said in the email.

Who could have foreseen a Wi-Fi-connected self-aiming weapon could be compromised so hackers are able to digitally "tag" a target independent of what the shooter wanted to fire at. TrackingPoint created an uber pricey rifle that allows for amateur shooters to accurately hit targets up to a half mile away - unless a hacker changes the target.

Using the weapon's Wi-Fi system, the researchers were able to compromise its software - and they found a way to manipulate its scope, feeding the shooter false wind direction, temperatures, and other considerations. Amateur shooters wouldn't likely notice the changing variables, even if the rifle locked onto a different target.

"You can make it lie constantly to the user so they'll always miss their shot," said Runa Sandvik, a researcher able to hack the rifle, in a statement published by Wired. "If the scope is bricked, you have a six to seven thousand dollar computer you can't use on top of a rifle that you still have to aim yourself."

Uber has just raised another $1 billion, which has the ride sharing giant being worth $50 billion, reaching the milestone two years quicker than Facebook did.

The company has attracted all sorts of different investors in its latest funding round, with one of them being Microsoft. According to sources of Bloomberg, Microsoft reportedly backed Uber by around $100 million. There's no information on what Microsoft's interest is in Uber, but abck in June, Uber secured itself a slice of Bing's mapping technology, as well as around 100 employees from Microsoft.

Microsoft isn't the first company to invest into Uber, with Chinese internet giant Baidu throwing some money into the ring, with an investment that is said to be around $600 million. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has also invested into the company, all the way back in 2011, as well as Google Ventures pledging $258 million in 2013.

As more vehicles include connected features such as high-tech infotainment systems, the problem won't just disappear anytime soon. In fact, this is something that we'll end up hearing more about in the future, as more problems are identified.

"This is the shot across the bow. Everybody's been saying 'cybersecurity,'" said Mark Rosekind, head of the National Transportation Safety Administration (NTSA), in a statement published by the NBC News. "You've got to see the entire industry proactively dealing with these things."

News that hackers were able to hijack a Jeep vehicle was the most recent connected car security fear - and it's something that has the NTSA frightened. "The supplier didn't just supply radios to Chrysler but to a lot of other manufacturers - a lot of our work now is trying to find out how broad the vulnerability could be."

Sharp's Aquos line of TVs might be popular amongst enthusiasts, but the company has been forced to pull out of the LCD TV business in the United States after various financial problems had Sharp's hands tied behind its back.

The company sold its Mexican factory for $23.7 million, along with the rights to its Sharp brand in both North and South America to Chinese TV maker Hisense. Over the last quarter, Sharp lost $274 million, while over the last four years the Japanese giant has lost $13.4 billion. Sharp recently secured itself a $1.8 billion bailout, but company president Kozo Takahashi said: "we have to consider all options, including a spinoff of the LCD business. The LCD market is changing very rapidly".

Hisense has said: "The acquisition (of Sharp's brand) will help Hisense gain an upper hand in both North and South America". From here on out, Sharp's Aquos TV line up will continue to be sold in the US, but Hisense will be enjoying any profits made.

One of the most annoying things on any of Samsung's Galaxy smartphones is the bloatware, that cannot be removed easily. Well, thanks to a Chinese lawsuit over its bloatware, Samsung will soon be offering patches for Chinese consumers' smartphones, allowing them to delete pre-installed apps.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 was used in an example, but we should see recent handsets like the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge also being capable of having their bloatware removed. Samsung is still not in the clear, with the Shanghai Consumer Council waiting to see if the South Korean giant will "meet its own promise" before the legal action dries up.

The PC version of Grand Theft Auto V is the best available across all platforms, especially when it comes to its awesome support for user made mods.

Modder 'JulioNB' has released a new video for his prototype Iron Man mod for GTA V, which you can see above. It's a tease of what's to come, but you get to use Iron Man's various weapons built into the suit, as well as fly around the world of Grand Theft Auto V. We should expect this mod to be released sometime in the next few months.

Now that the launch of Windows 10 is out of the way, Microsoft's next exciting launch is HoloLens. The company has said that HoloLens would arrive "in the Windows 10 time frame", but when is that?

During an interview with the BBC, company CEO Satya Nadella said that HoloLens should hit the first handful of developers and enterprise users "within the next year", smashing hopes that people would see it this year. Nadella added that the technology inside, and out of HoloLens is a "5-year journey".

Ubisoft unveiled Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands a couple of months ago at E3 2015, but now we're seeing some hands-on gameplay with multiplayer cooperative reactions in a new video.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands is the first military shooter to be set in a massive and responsive open world, including some sure to be awesome 4-player cooperative gameplay. You'll play as a member of Ghosts, a legendary US Elite Special Operations team that gets sent behind enemy lines to cause chaos and break alliances between dangerous gangs and the corrupted government of Bolvia.

SUPERHOT is one of the most unique first-person shooters that I've seen, where time in the game only goes forward when you, the player, moves. If you stop, time slows down to a near stand still, similar to 'bullet time' from The Matrix movies, or the Max Payne franchise.

The developers behind the game have released the first gameplay video from the recently released beta of SUPERHOT, which we've embedded above. It shows off the gun play, as well as the melee combat where you can throw whatever is in your hand, including your gun, at your enemies. The slow-motion gunplay looks incredibly fun, but the one instance where SUPERHOT is going to take off is in VR.

We played SUPERHOT on the Oculus Rift back at PAX AU 2014, where it was quite the experience. The developers promise that SUPERHOT is on track for a release later this year where you can purchase it directly from the SUPERHOT website for $14, or $25 if you want the digital artbook in PDF, and the game's official soundtrack in FLAC quality.